Wednesday, November 2, 2016

YA Review: The Lovely Reckless by Kami Garcia

Summary (from Amazon):Seventeen year-old Frankie Devereux would do anything to forget the past. Haunted by the memory of her boyfriend's death, she lives her life by one dangerous rule: nothing matters. At least, that's what Frankie tells herself after a reckless mistake forces her to leave her privileged life in the Heights to move in with her dad—an undercover cop. She transfers to public school in the Downs, where fistfights in the halls don't faze anyone and illegal street racing is more popular than football.Marco Leone is the fastest street racer in the Downs. Tough, sexy, and hypnotic, he makes it impossible for Frankie to ignore him...and how he makes her feel. But the risks Marco takes for his family could have devastating consequences for them both. When Frankie discovers his secret, she has to make a choice. Will she let the pain of the past determine her future? Or will she risk what little she has left to follow her heart?

Review:
After Frankie watches her boyfriend die, she begins to live life dangerously. But it soon catches up with her when she's caught driving drunk and gets transferred to live with her undercover cop father in the Downs. Changing schools sucks, but it also gives Frankie the chance to start over—even if starting over happens to be at a school with daily crime and dangerous people, including Marco, an illegal street racer. Frankie's attracted to Marco the first time she spies him in the parking lot, but she doesn't know if she's over her ex-boyfriend enough to move onto someone else, even if Marco makes her feel alive for the first time since the devastating accident. Will Frankie be able to work past her memory loss and put her boyfriend's death behind her and embrace Marco, or are they just too different?

Frankie was a great character. She wasn't the typical shy heroine that let people walk all over her. Instead, she stood up for herself and what she believed in, which I appreciated. She also had a sarcastic attitude, which set her character apart from other characters in the novel and made the story more interesting as a whole. Marco was also a good character, but I didn't feel the connection between Frankie and Marco as much as I would have liked. I felt like the relationship was too rushed and unrealistic. They fell in love too quickly, which made it hard to root for them as a couple, especially because Marco did illegal things that could ruin Frankie. The novel wasn't just about romance, though, but also about Frankie trying to get over the death of her boyfriend. She was traumatized, which is shown throughout the novel with fainting spells and flashbacks, and I thought the author took care of that devastation well, which made Frankie more relatable.

Overall, I recommend The Lovely Reckless to anyone looking for a contemporary young adult novel with a bad boy hero.